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I am a senior graduating this May, and I'm wondering what degree I should pursue if I want to be a sports broadcaster. What degree(s) did you obtain?

As someone who has been involved in sports my entire life, sports broadcasting seems like an intriguing career for me. I believe I understand sports extremely well and I even do my own analysis of some games. In addition, I have a 4.14 GPA and I am curious as to what steps to take after high school.
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Dr. James’s Answer

Earn Your Bachelor’s Degree in Communications. To become a professional sports broadcaster, you will need to earn your bachelor’s degree. It is common for future sports broadcasters to earn a degree in broadcasting, but related degrees such as communications are acceptable alternatives.
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Louise’s Answer

Hi Aiden,

What everyone else said is great. I'd add that for a degree in Journalism, I highly recommend my alma mater, the Missouri School of Journalism. It's the top undergraduate Journalism program in the country and gives you the opportunity for real-world experience as an undergrad. It also opens the door to prestigious internships while in school and amazing job opportunities after.

A select number of schools also offer Sports Journalism degrees https://study.com/sports_journalism_colleges.html
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John’s Answer

To the excellent answers here, I will add this: Regardless of what degree you pursue, the most important thing IS TO GET REPS. Join your campus radio and TV stations. Seek internships. Keep doing your own commentaries, as you say you are doing now. You must keep getting practice in front of a microphone. Campus stations are ideal -- you get to learn while doing something on the air. Also, learn as much about various sports and their histories as you can. That way, you are ready to make several of them your specialty as a pro. And PLEASE study the best interviewing techniques. So often, sportscasters fumble away marvelous one-on-one access with yes-no questions, poor questions and/or lack of follow-up questions.
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Sarah’s Answer

You could concentrate in Broadcast Journalism, Public Relations, Communications, Speech Communications, Sports Management or Administration. I think that having a degree in something related to sports and/or communications is important, but it's equally important to work on building your knowledge of various types of sports. I would check with whatever college you want to look at and see if they have any jobs working in the Athletics Department and/or a university-sponsored radio station that you can work/volunteer at to get some more of that experience.

Sarah recommends the following next steps:

Check out the different majors and research people who graduate with those degrees to see what jobs they've gotten after college
Check out your local radio stations for internship or volunteer opportunities
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John’s Answer

You might want to check the bios of the broadcasters you most admire. See what they majored in. Journalism would be a good major because it will teach you how to tell a story in concise fashion. Beyond your major, you want to try to get a lot on-air reps at your campus stations.
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Joe’s Answer

My son is pursuing a career in sports broadcasting too. He is currently a senior on college and his major is in Communications (Broadcast Journalism). He actually started pursuing his passion at an early age doing play by play for my softball games when he was still in elementary school. In high school, he started to broadcast his high school football and hockey games on YouTube and eventually expanded it to include hoops, baseball, soccer and field hockey. At college, he has been able to broadcast games in multiple sports. Even though he went to college with a lot of knowledge and experience in the field, his college program has done an outstanding job furthering his growth and making him an even more confident broadcaster.

While broadcasting seems like a fun and maybe even glamorous job, it is no picnic. I know that preparation and knowledge of sports (the rules, the history, the strategy, etc) is so important. My son actually takes the time to study professional broadcasters in order to further develop his own style. And he knows a lot about games that happened well before he was born. Networking is also pretty important. It helps to build relationships in the field. It is important to pick a school that specializes in sports broadcasting so that you can even interact with alumni.

I am personally very envious of my son's career choice. God blessed him with talent in this field, and he is pursuing it with passion. I would love to do that for a living, but God gave me talents in other areas. I pray that he and his classmates are all successful.
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